20-22 September 2010 | UN Headquarters, New York, United States of America

Summary Highlights of the Summit

L-R: Helen Clark, UNDP; Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General; Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, President of Colombia; and Choummaly Sayasone, President of Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos, during the event on “Turning the Evidence into Practice”

Daily web coverage(click on the following links to see our daily web pages)

It was hard to avoid running into a prime minister, president, secretary-general, executive secretary, or aging rock star on Wednesday, as the MDG Summit came to a close in a flurry of high-level events. Participants knuckled down to address the high-level panel of biodiversity, and events launching the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, and Inclusive Growth and Employment, all of which garnered significant attention. Numerous side events convened in the UN buildings and around New York, of which IISD attended 11.

L-R: Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, President of Colombia, and Choummaly Sayasone, President of Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos

Highlighst for Tuesday, 21 September 2010

The MDG Summit continued on Tuesday with two plenaries and two high-level roundtables on promoting sustainable development and emerging MDG issues, as well as dozens of side and partnership events. IISD-RS was there to report on 12 of these events, including on infrastructure in Africa, corruption, climate vulnerability, least developed countries (LDCs), innovative financing, and the role of trade unions, the highlights of which are presented below.

Traffic chaos greeted New Yorkers Monday morning as the MDG Summit closed a dozen streets in East Manhattan. Thousands of participants streamed into dozens of side events and partnership events. Nearly 140 Heads of State and Government simultaneously attended day-long plenary sessions in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters and high-level roundtables on: health and education; and poverty, hunger, and gender equality. IISD-RS was there to report on eight of the side and partnership events, the highlights of which are presented below.